


April 7, 2329

by panda_hiiro



Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Gen, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 18:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panda_hiiro/pseuds/panda_hiiro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Even out here, he is not alone. There is life inside him, all around him, and as long as he moves forward there is nothing truly left behind."</p>
<p>Post-movie, drabble. Setsuna is exploring the stars and Tieria reminds him of the date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	April 7, 2329

**Author's Note:**

> Written on 4/07 for Setsuna's birthday. HBD to the best Gundam ever.

Space is not silent. 

Even here, at the farthest reaches of this solar system, Setsuna is surrounded by sound - the gentle hum of Quan[t]'s GN drives, the low-level buzz of the ELS surrounding his mobile suit, the soft, steady noise of his own breathing and heart beat. 

One of the consoles lights up and the small projection of Tieria's form flickers to life. He gives a precise readout of their location, their approximate distance from Earth, and how long it has been since their departure. 7 years, 6 months, 3 weeks, and 2.3 days, to be exact. Tieria makes this report once every twenty-four hours, and it is the only way Setsuna has to mark the passage of time. Setsuna wonders, sometimes, whether Tieria does this for his benefit, or for his own. 

"Thank you, Tieria." 

"You are welcome, Setsuna F. Seiei. We should be passing out of this system within the next few days." A pause. "Sensors have detected a planet not far off from our current course. I thought I should inform you." 

"You sound curious," Setsuna says. "Want to check it out?" 

"It is not directly relevant to our current mission," Tieria says, "But I do feel Veda could benefit from any information I could gather..." 

"It's alright to say you just want to go," Setsuna says, with the slightest of smiles. Tieria scowls in response.  

"I will make the necessary adjustments to our course," Tieria says, with a huff, and disappears. 

He lets Tieria take the controls, feels the slight shift in Quan[T]'s engines. The ELS voices echo in his mind, buzzing with a curious excitement - unlike Tieria, they don't try to hide their eagerness to explore. Setsuna finds it hard not to share the feeling. 

Once, when he was young, he'd thought of space as something cold and empty, as a vast expanse of endless dark. That had been a comforting thought, then, imagining himself far, far away from the cares of the world, enveloped by the weightless oblivion of the stars. But he's seen so much now, more than he could have ever imagined back when he was just a child staring up at a distant sky - from the human colonies clustered around Earth, to worlds so strange and distant that there was no language to describe them. And who knew how much lay ahead of him, still? 

Sometimes he wonders what the people he left behind would have thought about all of it, how the things he'd seen would have looked to Lockon's eyes, or Saji's, or Marina's, or Feldt's. It's a lonely thought, but then he remembers - even out here, he is not alone. There is life inside him, all around him, and as long as he moves forward there is nothing truly left behind. 

"Setsuna." Tieria's voice again, without the accompanying hologram. "I have updated our destination coordinates. All systems are ready for quantum teleportation." 

"Understood. Let's go." 

The jump doesn't take long, everything around him disappearing into a brilliant flash of light. There's a light, weightless feeling that lingers afterwards as the GN particles dissipate around his machine, and as he blinks his eyes to clear them, the planet comes into focus

It's a perfect sphere of cool, soothing blue, broken only by white-gray clouds gathering under the atmosphere. It isn't as big as the Earth, but Quan[T] still feels impossibly small next to it. Setsuna doesn't say anything, and Tieria starts to read out the sensor reports on the planet's atmospheric makeup. 

"It's an oxygen-rich atmosphere," Tieria says. "You could go down to the surface, if you want." 

"I see. That sounds like a good idea," Setsuna says. "You want to get information for Veda, don't you?" 

"I do. But..." 

Tieria trails off, into an uncharacteristic silence. He's quiet long enough that Setsuna has to prompt him to continue. 

"That is not the only reason I wanted to come here." 

"Tieria?" 

"I did not mention this earlier, but the date - according to the calendar I calibrated before our departure, it is now April 7th."

There is another pause. Setsuna closes his eyes and smiles.  _Not alone,_ he thinks.  

"So - happy birthday, Setsuna F. Seiei."


End file.
